Eyewear for safety applications in industrial or medical use, or sports and other recreational activities, are used to protect a user's eyes. Such eyewear is usually designed to fit relatively closely to a user's face, so that noxious gas, liquid, particles, contaminants, and the like, do not touch or affect a user's eye(s).
Safety and some sports glasses or eyewear are often designed and formed such that they are bulky and heavy to wear. Some are tight-fitting and uncomfortable as well, such as goggles or masks. Further, such eyewear suffers from the lack of appropriate ventilation, resulting in moisture build-up and fogging of the lenses. This fogging may interfere with the user's vision as well as comfort, and can actually discourage the use of the eyewear. Moreover, eyewear that does not dissipate moisture may actually make it more difficult for a user to see when wearing the eyewear as compared to not wearing the eyewear.
Various attempts have been made in the art to reduce moisture buildup and fogging of eyewear. For example, it is know to treat eyewear lenses with a surfactant or other chemical composition to inhibit moisture build-up. However, such treatments are temporary and often require subsequent repeated applications. Skiers and other recreational users often carry a cloth impregnated with an anti-fogging composition to re-treat goggles or glasses as needed. This solution is inconvenient and not desirable in all instances. In the industrial and medical arts, the use of facemasks tends to direct warm, moist exhaled air towards the user's eyes. If the user wears glasses or a face shield, fogging is a problem. Various styles of facemasks incorporate a strip of foam or similar material across the top edge of the facemask to act as a gasket against the wearer's face in an attempt to minimize the fogging problem. This strip, however, tends to limit ventilation and escape of the exhaled air, which can increase the discomfort experienced by the user.
Therefore, alternative means for reducing moisture build-up and fogging with the use of safety and/or sports eyewear are still needed. The present invention relates to just such a solution.